Addy was waiting impatiently for Thalia to finish her recap of the adventure they had after leaving the dam. Because of her impatience, she missed most of what Thalia said. Addy looked at Thacia after Thalia finished. “What did she say happened?” Addy whispered.
“I have no idea,” Thacia replied.
“Oh. All I got was that we need to get to the top of that mountain to rescue Artemis, but we already knew that part.” Addy sighed.
She turned her attention back to the group in front of them. Grover was using his satyr powers to communicate to the Ophiotaurus. Addy looked toward the ginormous mountain to her right. They were going to have to climb that? All the way to the top? She was always ready for another adventure, but her legs kind of ached at the thought of climbing something so tall you couldn’t see the top because it was hidden in the tallest clouds. Addy turned to Thacia who had followed her gaze to the mountain. “Well this’ll be fun!” Thacia said.
“I know! But my legs are gonna be so sore afterwards,” Addy replied.
“Maybe we don’t have to climb… Maybe! they’ll do some magic-god- thingy to get us to the top!”
“Oooh!” Addy liked the sound of that. She turned to get an answer from Zoe, when she saw they were gone again. “What? Again!? What is this!?” she shouted, devastated.
“Fine! We can tell when we’re not wanted!” Thacia shouted too.
They didn’t shout in any particular direction, seeing as they had no idea which way their companions had gone. Addy walked over next to some beach bum’s chair and sat down. Thacia followed. “Man,” Addy said, “They always leave us behind.”
“I know,” replied Thacia.
“It’s gotta be hard work saving the world, I mean.”
“Yeah… but we coulda helped,” Thacia said somewhat quietly.
They both sat in silence for a moment, watching the waves roll. There was definitely a storm coming, but it was no natural disaster, it was the cause of those stupid titans. Addy started to mess with the hair tie on her wrist out of boredom, when suddenly she remembered the Portalian nailpolish in her pocket. She pulled it out and stared at the label. “We never did find out what this was,” Addy stated, jerking Thacia’s attention. “It was just in my pocket when we talked about those weird dreams we had.”
“Yeah, that was weird. You’re not a daughter of Aphrodite!” Thacia shouted, repeating what she had said the first time they discovered it.
“You already said that!” Addy shouted back.
“I know! I just needed to make it clear.”
Addy opened the nail polish and started writing, ‘Addy was here,’ on the wall behind them. “What are you doing!?” Thacia asked.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” was the indignant response. When Addy had finished, Thacia sntached the bottle yelled, “My turn!” and started writing underneath. Thacia got through the words, ‘Thacia was-’ before the bottle ran out of polish.
“You used to much!” Thacia shouted.
“No, I didn’t! See! I didn’t even do it that big!”
“Stupid nail polish!” Thacia said as she threw the bottle down.
It landed no more than five feet away. There was a sudden flash of bright light. Where the bottle had landed and was now a circle about three feet in diameter, with a whole new scene then the scene that was there a moment ago. Addy stepped closer. It was a street. “This is weird,” Thacia said.
“Yeah, I know! It’s kinda like the end of that crazy dream we had. You know, except with nail polish and not a rock, and it was sand and not a wall. But the point stands,” Addy rambled.
“What’re you two up to now?” asked a familiar voice. It came from the man occupying the seat next to them. Once again, Addy recognized him as her father, Apollo, in disguise.
“Oh, nothing! Just a bit of trouble, that’s all.” Addy answered.
“Oh, I see. Well, you two girls enjoy yourselves. Where you headed?” he questioned.
“Uhm… Baker Street!” Thacia answered this time, reading the street sign from below.
“Ah, have fun,” he said again before disappearing.
Addy and Thaca glanced at each other one more time, both sets of eyes sparkling with curiousity. And with that, they jumped to greet their new adventure.
